Hugo Primas

Hugo Primas (* ~ 1086 in Orléans ; † 17th September ~ 1160), also known as Hugo von Orléans , was a traveling scholar, literary scholar, poet in France in the 12th century. He is considered one of the most important representatives of the so-called vagante poetry .

Life

What is known about the life of Hugo Primate comes almost exclusively from his poems, although it is not entirely clear whether Hugo did not caricature himself as a literary person.

Born in Orléans around 1085 , Hugo set off on a journey at an early age to study literature and poetry at the various schools in the country. Around 1109 Hugo had already perfected his training to such an extent that he now appears as a teacher at the cathedral school in Orléans. His knowledge of the secular sciences, especially ancient literature, soon earned him the honorary title of primate . Hugo Primas is particularly well versed in the works of Homer and Ovid . A short time later he called Hilarius von Orléans , who later became a vagante poet and Abelard pupil, also as a lecturer at the cathedral school, but they parted ways again a short time later.

Hugo's lifestyle does not seem to have been designed to give him a permanent position at the cathedral. Presumably he soon fell into disrepute as a cynic and shameful. That is why he went on a journey and lived a life as a “traveling” teacher and poet until shortly before his death.

Goliards called themselves then gifted those, but penniless scholar ( scholares vagantes ) or hiking cleric ( clerici vagus nerve ), who refused to a sedentary life and a kind of guild the vagrancy with plenty of wine, women and dice game - these are the three W's of goliards - indulged. One of the most famous goliards of that time was a certain Primate of Cologne , with whom Hugo is sometimes confused, as well as the famous Archipoeta .

The following itinerary can be reconstructed from Hugo's poems : one after the other, he visits the cities of Le Mans and Tours , then for a short time Amiens and then Reims , and finally goes to Paris , Beauvais and Sens , although no fixed periods can be assigned.

Only his work in Paris, where Primate is well received by the high clergy, is dated by Richard's Chronicle of Poitiers :

The year 1142: In those days a teacher named Hugo lived in Paris, who was nicknamed Primate by his colleagues, a small person, ugly in shape. From his youth he had been instructed in the secular sciences; thanks to his wit and his knowledge of literature, the reputation of his name was radiantly spread through various provinces.

According to this, Hugo seems to have been a small, inconspicuous man who therefore calls himself Zacchaeus in one of his poems .

In order to earn a living, Hugo offers his poetry in the bishop's palaces, monasteries and aristocratic residences and does commissioned work. It is anything but a secure income: In Amiens , Hugo loses his belongings while playing, but is given the travel money to return to Reims by the clergy . In Sens he has to mortgage his coat and other utensils before he is generously rewarded by the bishop and archdeacon. He falls out with the Bishop of Beauvais and attacks him sharply in one of his poems.

Hugo also seems to have spent a long time in England at the invitation of a certain Richard, whom he met in Sens, where, as a wine lover, he did not like beer. Possibly this Englishman is none other than Richard, the brother of John of Salisbury .

In old age Hugo Primas is probably no longer doing well, he does not seem to have amassed a fortune. His description of the stay in a hospital for the poor speaks volumes about the life of the lower social classes in the cities. Hugo died after the middle of the 12th century, in an unknown place and under unknown circumstances.

plant

Hugo's literary legacy consists of around fifty poems and satires, most of which are written in Latin and some in Old French. They are preserved in the Oxford manuscript Rawlinson G 109 , which was created around 1200 and were first critically edited by Wilhelm Meyer in 1907. In 1961, Karl Langosch published a selection of these songs and poems in an anthology (see references below).

The Oxford manuscript is a homogeneous corpus of 23, after thematic equalization more likely 27 poems. There is no doubt that they all came from the pen of the Primate, as the poet left his name in no fewer than 8 poems. There are also numerous anonymous fragments, epigrams, memorial verses and short poems, which may also come from the pen of Hugo, but cannot be ascribed to him with certainty due to the lack of names. Further fragments of poetry that could have come from Hugo can be found in other manuscripts.

The lyrical works of the Oxford manuscript, epigrams and vagante songs are partly sorted according to their content or summarized because of similar content. Two consecutive odes from the Trojan sagas could also be excerpts from a larger epic about the Odyssey , which either only survived in fragments or was not completed by the primate for unknown reasons. The same goes for three poems about an easy girl named Flora. For reasons that are not clear, some of the stanzas that belong together are distributed in various places in the collection, such as the poems about coat and fur.

According to the thematic order by Langosch, there are five groups , with the poems of personal content introducing the collection:

The first poem is a commission from Reims. Three more fall into Hugo's old age: a poem against a nobleman who threw him down the stairs, a rhymed attack on the Bishop of Beauvais, an episode from a chapter house and poor hospital in which he defends a poor old man against an arrogant chaplain and therefore is thrown out, and finally the Imarus congratulations as the smallest and lightest piece.

The second group comprises about half of all poems, with the largest part only consisting of pairs of hexameters.

A trilogy deals with the prostitute Flora.

There are also three works on the subjects of wine and dice. In a poem of 19 distiches , Primate accuses a man who made him drunk in order to get his money out of him.

Three larger but fragmentary poems with 51, 59 and 101 hexameters each deal with ancient themes and differ from the others mainly in that they do not deal with contemporary events: Orpheus and Eurydice , Troy after the conquest, Odysseus at Teiresias .

style

The language of Hugo Primate is medieval Latin, which is lively and lively, but deviates strongly from the golden Latin and is therefore not always easy to translate.

As a meter of the Primate preferred the hexameter , isolated it rhymes in elegiac couplets . In addition, as a medieval specific feature , there are Leonine half-rhymes , which also appear in series as so-called unisoni , but also final rhymed Caudati and internally rhymed Trinini salientes .

Four larger poems of 90 to 180 verses contain only medieval rhythms: falling eight-syllables , rising six-syllables and alexandrines , or stabat-mater stanzas .

Most of the time, Hugo Primas strictly adheres to his previously defined concept, sometimes he deliberately and originally transgresses it, e.g. B. by the variance of the meter or prosaic insertions.

To promote the lively presentation, he uses the vernacular, often monologues or dialogues, provides rhetorical insertions, anaphors , alliterations and antitheses .

Content

As far as the content is concerned, the obviously deeply religious Hugo does not mince his words. He tells enthusiastically and unadorned, at times tending to grotesque exaggerations and sometimes even to insults and obscene words. His numerous interjections in old French and his emotional rhymes identify him as a passionate writer who is connected to the vernacular and who not only knows how to appropriately express his original thoughts and ideas, but also his innermost feelings. He sketches himself as a person who has been taken with life, but who is radiant with spiritual freshness and agility, is characterized by honest religiosity and is capable of humorous self-relativization.

All in all, the Vagantenlieder radiate such spontaneity and liveliness in their nuanced presentation and their burlesque scenery that one can easily assess their author as a highly talented world literary writer. The high level of awareness of the poems - even after his death - and their extraordinary quality pave the way for a new, more rhythmic lyric poetry and place Hugo Primate of Orléans on an equal footing in a line of development that starts from ancient authors such as Virgil or Cassiodorus to late medieval or modern poets like Villon or Verlaine leads.

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personal data
SURNAME	Hugo Primas
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Hugo of Orléans
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	French vagante poet
DATE OF BIRTH	around 1086
PLACE OF BIRTH	Orleans
DATE OF DEATH	September 17th at 1160